LarKooler SkyWater 330 DYI Kit Review

Cooling/Water Cooling by leeghoofd @ 2014-05-19

LarKooler was established in 2009 to manufacture cost-effective PC cooling solutions. MadShrimps  reviewed their first entry in to the DYI in the end of 2009; while it was not the most high end or best performing kit out there, the total picture was right on track with LarKooler's main objective: provide good cooling performance at an amazing bang for buck ratio. Since a few years AIO units took over a big part in the cooling business, with the most successful being the Corsair Hydro series. Ease of installation is their main trademark, however as most of these are closed loop, there is no option to integrate extra components in the cooling loop. The latter is the strong point of the DIY kits besides being versatile to add extra components they also provide awesome cooling performance at a low noise ratio. The SkyWater 330 kit today is one of those ready to build kits, however price wise it retails at a similar price as the high end 240/280 AIOs. Million dollar question can it beat those in raw performance figures ?

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CPU Block

CPU WB 500 Block:

 

 

The WB 500 CPU block aesthetically hasn't changed much from the previous versions: the fittings are pre-applied. Too bad the block can't be opened to have a look at the internals. Larkooler states the cooling surface is made out of a skived fins microstructure and out of full copper. The Intel mounting plate is mounted out of the box; by removing the four screws one can easily swap it for the AMD mount.

For all sockets, besides the LGA2011, installing a backplate is a requirement; to avoid short circuits a small foam patch is pre-applied.

 

 

 

An example of installation on Intel LGA1150, similar to 775/1155/1156 socket:

 

 

 

Installation on LGA2011:

 

 

 

Installation on AMD FM2+, alike AM2/3/3+ & FM1/2:

 

 

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